The manufacturing of certain composite structures to be used within absorbent articles often uses absorbent foam. The type of absorbent foam material may be chosen due to its specific properties. Absorbent foams may include latex polymer foams, polyurethane foams, and foams created by polymerizing an emulsion. One type of absorbent foam may be created from an emulsion that may be a dispersion of one liquid in another liquid and generally may be in the form of a water-in-oil mixture having an aqueous or water phase dispersed within a substantially immiscible continuous oil phase. These water-in-oil (or oil-in-water) emulsions have a high ratio of dispersed phase to continuous phase known in the art as High Internal Phase Emulsions, also referred to as “HIPE” or HIPEs. HIPE may be polymerized in either a continuous sheet or in a tubular reaction. Either process requires that one must use the polymerized open celled foam in a continuous sheet form or break up the polymerized open celled foam to make open celled foam pieces.
However, the conversion into a core presents a unique challenge. Prior uses have relied on using the sheet form or grinding the sheet form after being placed in a core to create particulates. This may be done so that one does not have to handle the foam in particulate form. These processes may be traditionally slow or tedious and may not be done at a rate that allows for high speed manufacturing. More specifically, it may be difficult to handle the foam particulates due to the triboelectric effect exhibited by dry foam particulates and due to how lightweight the particulates are.
Therefore, there exists a need for a process to place the foam particulates into or onto another material in a manner that allows for controllability of the foam particulates and for high speed processing, which is required for commercial output of absorbent articles. Further, there exists a need for a method to more effectively deliver foam particulates to a substrate.